


New Best Friend

by enderstorm



Series: The Hope Of Homeworld [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Homeworld (Steven Universe), Young Steven, past event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 02:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enderstorm/pseuds/enderstorm
Summary: “How did you meet Spinel?”Steven sighed. “When I was only eight years old, I remember Blue telling me a story about Pink. About how she had a friend. A genuine friend.”
Relationships: Peridot & Steven Universe
Series: The Hope Of Homeworld [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1347133
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	New Best Friend

_I was still kind of a kid at that point. Pearl was a very good assistant, and she always kept me company, and of course I can’t forget Peridot. My matriarch. My only caretaker for the entirety of my life. But between all the power training and history lessons and Diamond responsibilities that Pearl tried to help with, I was _bored.  
  
_Pearl tried to cheer me up, of course, to keep me entertained. That’s her purpose, right? Well, typically, yeah, but Yellow never needed her to be able to do those things, so she’s pretty bad at it. She can dance, sure, but she certainly cannot sing. Not… well. And you can’t really dance without music. Well, Blue’s Pearl manages, kind of… She could always get me to go to sleep, anyway. Besides, singing and dancing were never going to entertain an infantile mind._  
  
_Blue’s stories did, but she couldn’t always be around. I never noticed at the time, but she was still always vanishing to Earth and the Zoo. But… yeah, she told me a story one day about Pink’s best friend, and I asked her to show me some more places of Pink’s. I’d never been to Earth - it was far too dangerous - but I had been to the Zoo, and Pink’s palace, and the landing pad where her ship would be, and… well, nearly everywhere._  
  
_The key word being ‘nearly’. There was one more place that she forgot about, and she was eager to show me._  
  
“Yellow, I was right! There _is_ another place!” Blue shouted excitedly, pushing open the doors to the Yellow throne room uninvited and unannounced.  
  
“Blue Diamond, please.” Peridot chastised. “Firstly, his name is Steven, and secondly, he is trying to concentrate.”  
  
Steven was holding his palm straight out, trying to channel his power. His skin buzzed and his hair frizzed up, but he couldn’t project a bolt. “Argh!” He grunted in anger, punching his training dummy. The second he touched it, though, it exploded violently.  
  
Peridot sprinted over and checked him thrice over with her scanners. “At least you’re alright. Keep practicing, and you’ll soon be able to turn that static electricity into an actual projectile.”  
  
“You think so?”  
  
“In theory, yes.” Peridot nodded. “Yellow Diamond seemed to think so, or she wouldn’t have made you.”  
  
“Yeah! I’m gonna be a _great_ weapon!” He said happily, wrapping his arms around Peridot’s knees, who tensed up at the touch. Only from the threat of the static electricity causing her limbs to explode, though. Once she was sure they were both safe, she returned the hug.  
  
“Um… Steven?” Blue Diamond asked.  
  
“Oh! Hi, Blue!” Steven waved. “Did you come to watch me train?”  
  
“No.” She shook her head. “I found it! Pink’s sanctuary, the one I completely forgot about! I had my Pearl check the warp network, and sure enough, it was right down at the bottom. I haven’t been there in thousands of years, and…”  
  
“Can I come?” Steven asked.  
  
“Do you really have to ask, Ye- Steven?” Blue rolled her eyes. “Why do you think I came down here?”  
  
“We did have a lot of training planned, Steven.” Peridot said. “Don’t you want to be a great weapon?”  
  
“I _do,_ buuuut… I also kinda love learning about Pink Diamond!” Steven grinned. “She sounded so great…”  
  
“I’m sure she was.” Peridot nodded. She’d heard the stories, same as anyone else. But she didn’t _care._ She wasn’t there for her death. She wasn’t even there for _Yellow’s_ ‘death’. “Well… if you’re going anywhere, I might as well come. I’ll need to give you your injections first, anyway. And I have to make sure nothing will happen to you there, and-”  
  
“Peridot, cease your doting. Steven will be fine.” Blue sighed.  
  
“With all due respect, Blue Diamond, you don’t know _anything_ about humans, half gem aside.” Peridot snapped. “He’s not going anywhere without _me._”  
  
“Hey, don’t fight!” Steven said. “You can come, Peridot. I want you to. And Pearl, of course! We’re like a… a… a, uh… what’s that human word for a pack of them?”  
  
“A family?” Peridot asked.  
  
"Yeah.” Steven nodded. “A family.”  
  
“Well, that settles that.” Peridot said. She looked back up at Blue, as her fingers retrieved the various vitamin supplement syringes that she’d need. “We will meet you at the galaxy warp.”  
  
Blue looked unsettled at the Peridot’s display, and hastily left the room, leaving only her Pearl lingering for a few seconds. “Remember, it’s Pink Diamond’s galaxy warp. Don’t leave my Diamond waiting again by going to _yours_.” She added quietly, Peridot catching just a brief glimpse of one of her fierce eyes.  
  
She shivered with unease. That Pearl wasn’t right.  
  
“Relax your muscles, Steven. This only hurts if I have to pierce tense muscles.” Peridot ordered.  
  
He did. “Hey, Peridot…”  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“You don’t seem to like Blue very much.”  
  
“As a loyal gem, I have nothing but respect for the Diamonds.” Peridot smiled. “Of course, as your caretaker, I also shamelessly admit that she has no idea how to react to human young. The only humans she’s seen have been the fully grown ones at the Zoo. So she… goads you into doing things that she just assumes you can survive, simply because you have Yellow Diamond’s gem.”  
  
“Oh, she doesn’t have to try and trick me into going to this new old Pink Diamond place. I _want_ to go!”  
  
“I know you do. But if you went alone, and it was in the vacuum of space… You would cease to be, Steven, since I wouldn’t be there to protect you.”  
  
“Oh! So then I order you to always protect me!” He smiled. Peridot blushed.  
  
“I want nothing more, Steven.” She smiled.  
  
“So when are you injecting me?”  
  
“Oh, I finished a few minutes ago. You didn’t even notice.” Peridot said. “Go grab your Pearl and we’ll head for Pink’s galaxy warp.”  


* * *

They arrived on a space installation, somewhere. It was a glassy, crystalline dome, somewhere out in the reaches of space. What might have been a well tended to garden at one point was now an overgrown mess, vines snaking everywhere and choking the life out of smaller plants.  
  
“Oh, look at this place… This garden is a mess without her around to tend to it…” Blue sighed. “All dead and overgrown…”  
  
“Uh… Is that a gem over there?” Peridot asked, pointing to a path below them.  
  
They could barely make out a happily bouncing form, taking care not to let her feet leave the ground, even as vines seemed to be constricting them.  
  
“Woah!” Steven gasped. “Who’s she?”  
  
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen that type before.” Peridot hummed, consulting her limb enhancers.  
  
“I have…” Pearl whispered, breathlessly. Disbelievingly. Blue’s Pearl looked much the same, parting her hair in shock just to get a better look.  
  
“Blue, who is she?” Steven asked.  
  
“It… It can’t be…” Blue gaped.  
  
“I’m gonna go over and talk to her.” Steven said. “Hi!”  
  
“Wait, Steven-”  
  
“It’s like he has all the foolhardy recklessness of Yellow, but all the enthusiasm of Pink…” Blue sighed. “Oh, stars, he’ll be unstoppable one day.”  
  
“Wowie!” The gem’s eyes lit up as she saw them. “Pink? Is that finally… _Oh._ No, it’s… just _you,_ huh?” Her eyes flickered to Blue Diamond briefly, then back to Steven.  
  
“Hey, what are you?” Steven asked. “I’ve never seen a gem like you before...”  
  
“I…” She began, in a faux posh accent. “...am Spinel. And I’m waiting here for my best friend! Oh, but who shows up instead? It’s her… _other_… friend.” Spinel grinned, her smile seeming a little… strained. Not that Steven noticed. Blue looked at her, a mixture of insult and surprise on her face.  
  
“Well, _my_ best friend is Peridot.” Steven said, rocking on his heels. “Say hi, Peridot!”  
  
“Hi, Peridot!” Peridot echoed with a smug grin on her face. Steven smacked his face in exasperation.  
  
“Hahahaha! Good one!” Spinel laughed, a little more genuinely. Like she honestly hadn’t heard a joke that terribly good in a very long time.  
  
“So, who’s _your_ best friend?” Steven asked.  
  
“Oh…” She sighs dreamily. “Just the most radiant of Homeworld’s matriarchs. My Diamond, Pink…”  
  
Blue choked back a sob.  
  
“...Oh.” Steven blinked.  
  
“We’re playing a game, y’see!” Spinel continued, cheerily. “I just gotta wait here until she returns, and then I win!”  
  
Blue sniffled, a faint blue aura leaking out. “Oh, Pink…”  
  
“Oh, no…” Her Pearl mumbled quietly.  
  
“M-My Diamond…” Yellow Pearl addressed him, doing her best to ignore the tears building up in her eyes. “What should we tell her?”  
  
“The truth.” He said, wiping Blue’s tears out of his eyes. “She should know.”  
  
“H-Hey, what are y’all sad for?” Spinel asked, stretching her arms out to encompass everyone, except Blue Diamond, in a hug.  
  
“Unhand me, you elastic pebble!” Peridot choked out. “I’m not allowed to be hugged by anyone except Steven!”  
  
“Blue!” Steven shouted. “Tell her. Please.”  
  
She sighed, taking a deep breath. “Spinel.” Blue began, repressing her sorrow. “If you could unhand them.”  
  
_“Okay!”_ She smiled, singing in a voice so fake that even Steven finally picked up on it. Her arms released everyone.  
  
“It brings me immense sorrow to have to tell you this…” She trailed off, her eyes misting up again. “But Pink Diamond was shattered five thousand years ago.”  
  
“Oh!” Spinel said, her body going stiff. _“She was, huh? Well, gee, if only someone could have informed her _**_best friend_**_ sooner.”_  
  
“Wait, so she’s been here by herself for five thousand years?” Steven asked, desperately.  
  
“Yep.” Spinel smiled stiffly, popping the ‘p’.  
  
“Well… _I_ could use another friend, if you want!”  
  
“Oh boy! New friends!” She smiled, wrapping her arms around one of Steven’s. He tugged on it, but she just held him there, not moving.  
  
“Uh… you gotta let me go if we want to head back.” Steven said, awkwardly.  
  
“She can’t, my Steven.” His Pearl said. “Pink Diamond ordered her to stay there, and she wouldn’t break an order from her Diamond.”  
  
“Y’got that right.” Spinel laughed, before she locked eyes with Blue Diamond. “_Who shattered her?_” She growled, a dark look crossing her face.  
  
Blue’s Pearl produced a well drawn lineart portrait of Rose Quartz on a light screen. “A horrible rebel. The terrifying Rose Quartz.”  
  
“Well!” Spinel’s grip became tight, and Steven squeaked in discomfort. “I’d better pay _old Rosie_ a visit then, huh? I mean, I lost this game, huh? Disqualified for having my friend _murdered._”  
  
“Absolutely not.” Blue said, firmly. “No one is going to that miserable speck again.”  
  
“But-”  
  
“We decimated every gem on the Earth’s surface. There’s no way Rose survived.” Blue said. “Spinel… You were Pink’s best friend, and now… I don’t know.” She whimpered. “You’re all that remains of her… You’re so much like her… I... I can’t bear to look at you. I’m sorry.” She cried.  
  
“Come, Pearl. Steven. Let’s leave this cursed place.” She said, turning to the warp pad.  
  
“Where’ya goin’, new friends?” Spinel asked cheerily, hefting Steven up into the air. “You’re not gonna _leave_ poor old Spinel here, are ya?”  
  
“Well, we don’t have a choice.” Peridot said. “Since you’re too stubborn to come back to Homeworld.”  
  
“Oh, you bet I would if I could.” She grinned, wickedly. Her eyes seemed to… melt, slightly, black lines streaking downward. “But since I can’t… You all may as well stay here! With your new best friend, Spinel!” She reeled her arms in, wrapping Steven up in an inescapable hug.  
  
“Unhand my Diamond!” Pearl shrieked. “Peridot, _do something!_”  
  
Peridot charged up her blaster, but let it dissipate when Steven was shoved in the line of fire.  
  
“Your Diamond? This lil’ meatball? Haha! Where _is_ the tall, grumpy one, anyways?”  
  
“Here!” Steven said. “That’s me, Yellow Diamond!”  
  
“You? That’s… That’s a good one!” She laughed. “Right?”  
  
Blue finally managed to tear her eyes away from the warp pad, and turned back to face the devolving argument. “That is indeed Yellow Diamond. Her temporary form, anyway.”  
  
“Oh! Well…” Spinel stretched her hands up, still keeping a firm hold on Steven, forming a criss-cross pattern of two diamond shapes. “It’s real swell that the great Diamonds want to stay here with lil’ old me, hey?”  
  
“Let him go.” Blue said.  
  
“Why?” Her face went dark. “Then you’ll _leave._”  
  
“Let… me… go!” Steven screamed, buzzing with electricity. Spinel screamed in agony as she exploded into a puff of smoke, the pink heart gemstone clattering to the ground in a pile of overgrown vines.  
  
“Steven!” Peridot screamed, scrambling over to him. She scanned him, and thankfully found nothing wrong other than a red mark on his arm where Spinel had squeezed him too hard.  
  
“I’m okay.” He sighed, looking around the garden. As if waiting for a cue, a pillar finally collapsed in the background. He looked to the heart shaped gem on the ground in front of him.  
  
“Do you want me to destroy her, Steven?” Blue asked.  
  
“No!” He said, hugging the gemstone close. “No. I’ll take her. She… I don’t want her to be alone anymore.”  
  
“Steven… Please, try not to blame this on Pink.” Blue sighed, scooping him up as they returned to the warp pad.  
  
“No. I know.” He said. “It’s that twisted Rose Quartz. If she hadn’t have shattered Pink Diamond, then she would have come back for Spinel once her colony was done.”  
  
“You can… Steven, if you don’t want her broken, then you can just… _have_ her. With Pink gone, she needs a _new_ friend to cheer up. And I _know_ how bored you get with your lessons.” Blue said.  
  
“Really?” Steven said. “I can… You’re letting me have fun?”  
  
“Letting?” Blue mouthed. “Steven, you’re my equal. I don’t have to ‘let’ you do anything. Pink’s court is gone, and her gems... If you want Spinel, then you can take Spinel.”  
  
“Peridot, can I keep her?” He asked, turning to his green guardian. Blue quirked an eyebrow. A Diamond _asking_ a gem if she was _allowed_ to do something? Of course, that seemed to be quite common with Steven. The Peridot _had_ been made to care for him.  
  
“Well, I don’t see why not.” She said. “Some positive stimulation will do your sanity wonders, since your Pearl is woefully antiquated when it comes to entertainment. Of course, we should probably make sure she’s not going to try and get possessive again. And she will likely need time to process her Diamond’s... passing.”  
  
__We kept her in my office for about two months, after that. Peridot thought that she just needed more time than usual because my powers were getting more and more potent at disabling gems. Blue, however, guessed that she probably was taking a lot of time trying to deal with learning about Pink Diamond’s death. I asked Pearl as well, just as a last resort, and she surmised that she can’t reform if she isn’t in the garden, in that same spot. I told her that I wasn’t taking her back to that dying space garden and that she’d just have to deal with that.  
  
Then she reformed.  
  
“I’ll deal with you later, Pearl.” Steven grumbled. Pearl shuddered with anxiousness, and bowed.  
  
“I truly am sorry, my… Steven.” She said, remembering extra hard to use his name.  
  
“Shut up!” He shouted excitedly, meaning no offence. Pearl clammed up anyway, diverting her attention to what had piqued her Diamond’s interest. “She’s finally reforming!”  
  
When she landed on the ground in front of him, bouncing once off of the pillow that her gem had been resting on, he noticed her form. It was different. Way different.  
  
Her whole form was darker, and she looked like she was crying black tears. Her hair was messier, the heart buns being freed into pigtails. The most drastic change that he noticed was her gem. She had flipped it upside down.  
  
“Hey there.” He greeted. “New best friend.”  
  
“My Steven…” Pearl attempted to get his attention. “There are some outstanding requests from your newest colonies. The Kindergartners would like to know what gems to start incubating, and I believe there are some rabid organics closing in that your armies would like to dispatch-”  
  
“Ugh.” He groaned. “Not right now, Pearl. I’m… bored.”  
  
Spinel watched with wide eyes at the display. “You really are Yellow Diamond, huh?”  
  
“That’s right!” He posed theatrically, jumping to his feet atop his throne. “I’m her organic superweapon! Her proof of concept better gem.”  
  
She smiled. “Hey, you wanna play a game?”  
  
“Like what?” Steven asked.  
  
A pink arm had snaked its way around his throne and poked him on his back. “Tag!”  


**Author's Note:**

> If Spinel seems OOC, blame that on me never actually having seen the movie. I only have the transcript to go off.  
I don't care, I can't stand musicals.  
...Also, I guess it's an AU. There. Foolproof excuse.
> 
> Discord: endersass#7192  
Twitter: @endersass


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